North Wales leg of Tour de France suggested

Clwyd South Assembly Member Ken Skates has called on the Welsh Government to do all it can to bring a British leg of the Tour De France to North Wales.

Tour De France race organisers ASO have recently signalled a desire to bring a leg of the prestigious race back to Britain, possibly as early as 2014 or 2015.

British Cycling, the Governing body of the sport in the UK, has proposed a ‘Grand Depart’ stage which would see the UK leg started in Edinburgh and end in the South East, with racing in Wales being contained on the third day.

The move would need backing from the Welsh Government and the AM is hoping North Wales can be involved in the stage..

A second rival bid comes from Yorkshire, who hope to have the stage in entirely in their region.

 

Mr Skates said: "In recent weeks there has been a clear sign from ASO, the organisers of the Tour De France, that they want to bring the race back to the UK very soon in order to capitalise on the huge explosion of interest there has been in cycling since the Olympics.

“There are two rival bids for the UK Leg, with British Cycling backing a bid which includes Scotland, England and a portion of the leg in Wales. Given this, I can think of no better place to hold the race than here in North Wales.

“There aren’t many top level sporting competitions that North Wales can host, we will always miss out on the big stadium-based events to South Wales. However for an event like this North Wales is perfectly suited given the spectacular local scenery and the numbers of people who would come out to line the route.

“Given the surge in popularity for the sport and the economic benefits that could be won by staging a route in North Wales, I am hoping the Welsh Government will work with ASO and British Cycling to explore how the region can be involved.

“A gruelling Clwydian Range leg of the Tour De France could be spectacular and do wonders for how we promote and market the area.”

A report by Transport for London highlighted how the British Leg of the 2007 tour, the last time a leg was staged in the UK, attracted crowds of over three million and generated over £70million for the London economy alone.

The First Minister said Welsh Government discussions were ongoing with partners involved in staging a British leg of the Tour De France.

New support for volunteers and sports clubs

Denbighshire Leisure service has launched an initiative to help support volunteers and community sport clubs across the whole of North East Wales.

Linking with Wrexham County Council, Sport Flintshire and Glyndwr University,  Denbighshire Leisure service will support clubs through free training and resources so that they can provide the best setting for volunteers within their clubs.

Clubs will need to meet some simple criteria and will be able to work with the council to benefit from better links with young volunteer sport leaders at local schools, specialised students from Glyndwr University, which can be as vast and varied from accountancy, to physiotherapy, ground maintenance and computer technology, good practices to create a more positive environment for current volunteers, and ways to advertise efficiently for new volunteers.

Councillor huw Ll. Jones, Cabinet Lead Member for Toursim, Leisure and Youth, said: “Volunteers are the backbone of community sports clubs. Many clubs wouldn’t exist without such dedicated volunteers and this initiative will help community sport clubs recruit and retain more volunteers in a variety of roles.

“With the success of the Olympic and Paralympic games in London this year, this initiative will help to increase participation at all sport clubs through the county.”

Some sport national governing bodies are already backing the campaign along with Sport Wales. Hockey Wales is currently preparing the same criteria for their new club accreditation programme as the recommendations for this volunteer kitemark scheme.

Debra Barker, the North Wales Regional manager for Hockey Wales , said: "It's good to see that national governing bodies, local authorities and Sport Wales are looking to work together with sport clubs to help improve the offer across all sport for volunteers in North Wales.”

For more information on the local free courses on offer from this month, free sport development resource CD or to meet a Leisure services representative to plan how your club can move forward together. Contact the Coach and Volunteer development officer Matt Hilliker on matthew.Hilliker@denbighshire.gov.ukor 07798742290 or follow this link to the Denbighshire Leisure website:http://www.denbighshireleisure.co.uk/events.html

County council "out of touch" with Llan, claims KLS

* One of Llangollen's long-term empty properties.

Mike Edwards, chair of Keep Llangollen Special, attended the National Regeneration Summit 2012 at Parc Eirias, Colwyn Bay last week.

 

Here, specially for llanblogger, he gives impressions of what it meant for Llangollen. 

 

 

* Mike Edwards
 

The summit, which I attended on behalf of Keep Llangollen Special, focused on the problems facing town centres and local economies in the difficult financial climate the country is enduring. 

There were a number of interesting speakers and workshops examining amongst other things

community empowerment and innovative ways of endeavouring to solve the varying problems facing towns up and down Wales.  

The Minister for Housing, Regeneration and Heritage addressed the conference and drew particular attention to the consultation document "Vibrant & Viable Places" which sets out a new regeneration framework and the consultation which is open until January 14 for all interested parties to make their representations on the proposed framework. 

Town and city centres up and down Wales are suffering badly in the current economic climate, as revealed in recent data from the BRC that 11.3% of shops were vacant across the UK, but that 15.1% of retail units were currently vacant across Wales.  

Up to now Llangollen has fared relatively well in this respect with only a small number of shops being vacant in the defined town area, but there are a number of other properties which have been vacant for years and stand derelict and are eyesores in the town. 

It was interesting to hear from one speaker from Denbighshire CC saying that in other parts of the local authority's area they had stepped in to break this cycle of decline and acquired such properties for regeneration projects – perhaps these approaches will be taken in Llangollen to protect an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and World Heritage Site Buffer Zone? 

Keep Llangollen Special consider that Denbighshire's approval of a planning application to build an out-of- town supermarket in contravention of the Welsh Government’s planning policies in relation to protection of town centres and sustainable development will have a severe impact on the vibrancy and viability of Llangollen town centre.  

In addition to this Betsi Cadwaladr Health Board intend to close the Community Hospital in 2013 and eventually relocate the GP Health Centre to an edge of town location and possibly  take with it other facilities such as dental, chemist and support health services which are currently available to residents in a central town location. 

Denbighshire CC is totally out of touch with the community it serves in Llangollen and the Welsh Government’s thinking on vibrant and viable places and their statement that: "Everybody in Wales should live in vibrant, viable and sustainable communities with a strong local economy."  

We call upon Denbighshire to address these issues and develop strategies to deal with vacant unused and underused properties in Llangollen and protect and develop and properly market the "brand" of Llangollen and its numerous independent shops and supporting local supplier network.

Texts will remind patients of hospital appointments

* Texts will be sent to remind outpatients of appointments at Wrexham Maelor Hospital.

Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board, which covers Llangollen, has launched a text message reminder service for all outpatient appointments.

In future, patients will be asked for a mobile phone number at the time of booking and agreeing their appointment date and time.

 

Four days before the appointment they will receive a text reminder to confirm their appointment arrangements.

 

Patients can choose not to receive such a reminder.

Rachel Whitehall, the board's assistant director planned care, said: “Lives are getting busier, and it is all too easy to forget an outpatient appointment, particularly when the date is fixed well in advance.

 

"But each missed appointment wastes staff time and leaves other patients having to wait longer to be seen. By introducing this service we hope not only to help patients themselves with a gentle reminder, but also reduce the number of no shows at outpatient clinics.

“The new text service started on Monday, November 19 and if we can demonstrate that patients are finding the service useful and the ‘did not attend’ rates are reducing, the text service will become a permanent feature."

Welsh Assembly should have new powers, says report

The Daily Post is reporting today that the Welsh Assembly should be granted new powers to raise taxes and borrow funds to boost capital spending, according to a commission.

The report adds: "But a year long inquiry by the Silk Commission suggests that the ability to vary income tax in Wales should follow only if agreed in a new referendum.

"It also rules out devolution of corporation tax to Wales unless it goes ahead in Scotland or Northern Ireland.

"Borrowing powers for the Welsh Government to boost infrastructure should also be ‘subject to prudent limits agreed with HM Treasury’, the study concludes.

"The 198-page report ‘Empowerment and Responsibility: Financial Powers to strengthen Wales’ makes 33 recommendations to Welsh Secretary David Jones.

"The proposals to hand Wales its own tax and borrowing system for the first time represent ‘a significant change which should be implemented step-by-step to build experience and balancing risks to the Welsh and UK budgets’, the report says."

See http://www.dailypost.co.uk/news/north-wales-news/2012/11/19/give-wales-its-own-tax-and-borrowing-system-says-silk-commission-55578-32261830/

Minister will have final say on health shake-up

* Elin Jones AM.  

Campaigners battling to preserve local health services in Llangollen have welcomed an exchange between Plaid Cymru and Health Minister Lesley Griffiths in the Welsh Assembly.

Plaid’s health spokesperson Elin Jones said to Ms Griffiths:  “Minister, it is important to have a national medical perspective to help plan hospital service configuration  “However, the independence, transparency and integrity of the national clinical forum are important. “It needs to be independent of the Government and the interests of individual health boards.  “Despite events surrounding the possibility of rewriting specific documents, do you agree that there is now a clear divergence emerging between the medical opinion of the national clinical forum, which wants to reduce the number of large general hospitals, and the medical opinion at a local health board level, especially in Hywel Dda Local Health Board and Betsi Cadwaladr University Local Health Board, which want to keep a lot of what they already have, much to the pleasant surprise of some of us? “Given this divergence of medical opinion, locally and nationally, do you now accept that, ultimately, decisions on hospital configuration will have to be taken by you?”

Ms Griffiths (pictured right) replied: “When we started out on this process, I always knew that a part of it would end up on my desk. That is obvious. “I also knew that there would be a divergence in opinion. “I also know that there are many vested interests as we go through this process.  I will come in right at the end, when we have those definitive reports.” A spokesman for the local health service campaigners described the Senedd exchange as “good news”.

 

Tough action demanded over tree disease

Clwyd South Assembly Member Ken Skates has called for the Welsh and UK Governments to work together to manage the spread of Ash Die Back in North Wales.

Chlara Fraxinea – otherwise known as Ash die back - is an imported fungal disease and experts suggest it has the potential to be as dangerous as Dutch Elm Disease which wiped out 25m trees in the 1970s and 80s.

100,000 Ash Trees in England have been destroyed by the disease with Wales' first case being confirmed by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) in Carmarthenshire.

The AM said its spread to North Wales was ‘almost inevitable’ and called for ‘clear and co-ordinated’ guidance to help those with infected trees on their land.

Mr Skates said: “Unfortunately the spread of this disease to North Wales is almost inevitable. What we need now is strong leadership from the Welsh and UK Governments and clear guidance being given to landowners who discover this disease on their land in North Wales.

“Infected trees need to be reported quickly and we need clarity as to whether they should then be cut down or left in situ. We need to be guided by expert scientific opinion on this matter, my only concern is to make sure that this happens quickly.

“We also need have clear guidance on how to handle leaf litter, because of the danger of diseased spores being moved to other sites. From this point onwards it may well be a case of moving resources to manage the outbreak as best we can when it finally comes.

“I raised this issue in the Senedd at the start of October, calling for a ban on imports of nursery stock. Sadly we have gone way past that and it now threatens the very survival of some of the most beautiful and historic Ash Trees in North Wales.

“Landowners and members of the public need to be better informed and I will be pressing the Minister for clear guidance from the Welsh and UK Governments.”

Ash dieback was first recorded in Eastern Europe in 1992 and spread over two decades to infect most of the continent.

The first confirmed case in the UK was recorded at a nursery in Buckinghamshire back in March.